Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Beats EPS Estimates, Stock Soars

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) earnings for the three months through March 31 arrived this afternoon after the market closed on Wall Street. The company showed earnings of $0.68 for the quarter the company records as its third of 2014. Revenue in the same period came in at $20.4 billion. On today’s market shares in the Windows-seller trended down and finished the day trading at $39.86.

In the run-up to the release of the earnings report on Thursday afternoon, analysts studying Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) were looking for earnings per share of 63 cents from the company. The 25 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg said they were expecting the company to bring in revenue totaling $20.5 billion by consensus. Microsoft earned 72 cents per share in the third quarter of last year on revenue of $20.5 billion.

Microsoft sees growth in enterprise

Analysts will be watching some very particular numbers in this earnings report. The company’s enterprise services revenue is central to the future growth of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Analysts and the company’s own management are certain that the future of Microsoft will be secured by a new attitude toward enterprise.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is once again concentrating on enterprise. The third fiscal quarter of 2014 was the first that saw the company’s new CEO Satya Nadella in charge, and the shift in the company’s focus is likely to be noticeable in the company’s earnings conference call at 5:30 PM EDT. A Microsoft CEO has not appeared on an earnings call since before the reign of Steve Ballmer, making the move a central part of the company’s image editing program.

Microsoft is not used to competition

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has fed off of its successes in the PC industry for years, but now it faces a truly competitive environment. The quick decline of the PC left the company with a lot of disgruntled investors, and hardware investments did not help. Microsoft is not in a monopolistic position any more and competition isn’t something the company is particularly used to.

The enterprise software and services market is not yet fully mature, and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) numbers show that there is still a huge amount of exploitation to be done before the revenue from the market rivals the company’s Windows base. The lack of maturity coupled with the amount of competition in the market is what adds risk to a bet on Microsoft.

Today’s results show a Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) with a lot more to do, and a lot further to go. The company needs to face up to the competition likely to reign down in the coming years if it wants to dominate enterprise services as it has the operating system market. Without that effort, shareholders are unlikely to reap the gains promised by the company’s recent increase in value.